The Lilies of summer

My photographs are on display at the Hewitt’s on Rt. 50 in Glenville. Drop by for a look! These are professionally processed and printed on Kodak Endura paper for 100 year colorfastness.

Wild ancestors
All the wonderful varieties we enjoy were bred from about 150 wild lily types found worldwide. In fact, we have five native lilies that grow wild here in the northeast, the Michigan Lily, Turk’s Cap Lily, Woodlily, Trout Lily and the Canada Lily. If you are lucky enough to see one of these beauties, look but leave it alone. All are protected in New York State.

Canada Lily

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.Glowing on a foggy morning

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.Tiger Lily
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Trout lily

The lilium segment of the larger Liliaceae family contains some of the showiest flowers to be found anywhere, and many of the thousands of cultivars thrive in our northern climate including two of my favorites, Asiatic and Oriental Hybrids.

Asiatic Lilies
Asiatic hybrids are the first of the lilies to flower in early summer. They are also the most cold tolerant of all lilium forms. Asiatics mature and reproduce rapidly, making them a rewarding choice for those just starting to dabble in lily growing. Asiatics are available in reds, whites, pinks, oranges, and yellows of every shade. Some feature solid colored petals while others are ornately speckled. Asiatics are not strongly scented but come in a range of sizes from 2’ to 5’ tall! Here are a some of Asiatic Lilies that grow in our beds.

Asiatic Lilies
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Wake up and smell the lilies!
To find fragrance, we must sniff out the Oriental lily hybrids. Although not quite as winter hardy as their Asiatic cousins, many Oriental varieties are hardy in zones 4 and 5, hardy enough to thrive in our area. Oriental lilies will produce some of the largest, showiest flowers that you could expect this side of the tropics. A sub-group of the Oriental lilies are the Imperial hybrids. Imperial lilies produce large, sometimes huge flowers on sturdy stems. The Imperial Gold strain, for instance, produces 5” to 7” fragrant flowers on plants up to 7 feet tall.

Oriental Lily
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Winter hardy bulbs
All lilium varieties grow from bulbs. You’ll start seeing them in garden centers in March. They’ll be offered bare-root in plastic bags. Shop for them early so you can pick out the fattest ones from the group offered. The fatter the bulb, the better the plant. Plant your lilies as soon as the ground has thawed. Choose a location that is in full sun with well drained soil. Dig the holes about 3 times as deep as the bulb is tall. As usual, add bone meal to the planting hole.

Divide to multiply
After enjoying your lilies for 3 or 4 years, you’ll notice that you’re getting more plants and flowers but they aren’t as tall as they used to be. This is a signal that they’re crowded and need to be dug and divided. This can be done in fall after frost or early spring when they’ve just started to sprout from the soil (adding more bone meal of course).

The lily that isn’t a lily
Another lily enjoyed by many is not a lily at all. Everyone knows them as daylilies but they are not true lilies but Hemerocallis. You have seen them growing almost wild in roadside ditches and just about anywhere. We can thank our ancestors who planted them generations ago. This gives you some idea of how self sufficient Hemerocallis are spreading out across the countryside without any aid from humans. Hemerocallis is a Greek word meaning ‘beautiful for a day’. The name reflects the lifespan of each flower which opens in the morning and withers away at the end of a single day. Daylily flowerbuds are also edible. You may have heard of lily pod soup but there are lots of recipes that use daylilies.

Daylilies are about the easiest plants to grow. They love full sun but will thrive in partial shade and aren’t particular about the soil they’re planted in. Once established, daylilies last for a lifetime and longer as evidenced by all the orange “ditch lilies” around the area that our fore parents planted.

Only a few years ago, a clump of yellow daylilies was considered exotic. Now red, gold, peach and burgundy daylilies are turning up in perennial borders. Daylilies with bi-colored flowers are commonly available. Miniatures and strongly scented daylilies have also appeared.

Common Daylily
.Some fancier daylily varieties
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Tetraploid Daylilies
Another recent development is the Tetraploid Daylily. Tetraploids have double the number of chromosomes. This has opened up a whole new world of breeding possibilities. The large flowers of tetraploid daylilies make them irresistible to flower gardeners. Another attribute of the tetraploid daylilies is their ability to blossom repeatedly through the summer. Most daylilies are done for the season once the first round of flowers is done in early July. Tetraploids will continue to send up flowering stems through July, August and even September…ya gotta love that!
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.Tetraploid Daylilies
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The daylily has come a long way from the common roadside plant that our ancestors planted. They have taken up a new role at the heart of the garden. Give them a try.Thanks for the read.

4 Responses

Oriental lilies have always been one of my favorite flowers, they’re up there with peonies and not much else. I love the way they smell, although Freesia is a close competitor. I was pleased to see that a number of florists included them in their displays for the New York in Bloom exhibit at the museum last weekend.

Beautiful pictures.

I do have a question for you. I have some oriental lily bulbs on order, but right now I’m renting a house. I hope to bring all my bulbs and tubers (I don’t have too many) with me when I move. Do you have a recommendation as to how best to approach this, particularly with the lilies (since I have to dig up tubers anyway). Can I dig them up in the fall and store them reliably?

My begonia tubers that I planted a few weeks ago are poking up weird little shoots, I’m taking this to be a good sign.

Cihan, You can dig your lily bulbs and other tubers in the fall. Brush off any loose dirt and store them in very dry, sterile potting soil or vermiculite. They need to be stored in a very cool but dry place. If you have to move during the growing season then you’d want to dig them and replant them as quickly as possible although this would be a riskier option.

The refrigerator would be perfect if you have room…for most bulbs including lilies 40° to 50° is ideal so yes, anything below 50° is good. Modern frost-free refrigerators tend to suck moisture from bulbs so you may want to check and lightly moisten the bulbs if they are stored for an extended period.

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